§ 651.New Trial - Definition - Causes For

A new trial, as Section 651 defines it, is a reexamination in the same court of an issue already decided, whether by jury verdict, an approved referee report, or the court's own decision. Win a new trial, and the earlier verdict, report, or decision gets vacated.

The section lists nine grounds, each requiring that it materially affect the substantial rights of the party asking for relief: irregularity in the proceedings of the court, jury, referee, or the prevailing party, or an abuse of discretion, that denied a fair trial; juror or prevailing-party misconduct; accident or surprise ordinary prudence couldn't have guarded against; excessive or inadequate damages suggesting passion or prejudice; a wrong assessment of the amount of recovery, too large or too small, in a contract or property case; a verdict, report, or decision unsupported by sufficient evidence or contrary to law; newly discovered evidence a diligent party couldn't have found and produced at trial; an error of law at trial that the moving party objected to; and, unusually, the impossibility, through no fault of the complaining party, of preparing a record for appeal.

That last ground has no real counterpart in most modern procedure codes. It lets a party get a second trial not because anything went wrong at the first one, but because circumstances beyond anyone's control made appealing it impossible.